Master Mine
by CountryGirl93
Summary: "Master mine, my will is thine. What are your wishes three?" When Brendan finds a queer looking silver bottle, he is not expecting a genie to appear before him. Unfortunately, a genie in a bottle is the least of his worries as he sets out on a journey to escape the Forest of the Damned and reclaim the throne of the Green Isles for the love of his life.
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**  
><strong>Years Ago<strong>

"Genie, oh genie. Come out, come out, wherever you are!" The small woman clapped her hands in glee and then stomped her foot when no answer came. "Get out here now, genie!"

"I have a name, you know."

The sound came from behind, causing the woman to spin around and look up. Sitting on a stack of barrels was a pixie like young woman, swinging her legs as if she hadn't a care in the word.

"Your name matters not."

"So it would seem." The genie replied. "And have you decided on your third wish?"

"Yes, I have!" The woman, so proud of herself puffed out her chest with misplaced self-worth. "I want to travel someplace new and exotic."

The genie nodded. "You must _wish _it first."

"I wish," she began, her voice loud and booming, "for you to take both of us somewhere exotic and new!"

With a little puff of air and a lot of buzzing, the woman disappeared from sight and the genie prepared herself for an uncomfortable journey into the unknown...


	2. Aleandra

**Chapter One: Aleandra**  
><strong>Aleandra; Present Day<strong>

If one was to ask around, they would discover that the world they lived in was a queer one. The old ways took precedent, but time and time again, a modern amenity slipped through. In the northern region, named Aleandra after a beautiful sorceress who once lived there, was a place solely dedicated to the old ways. The new was scorned, hated and feared at times. Residents turned to the powerful and the wealthy, not caring about the right and true.

The land was also part of a forest, one of power and darkness. The Forest of the Damned was filled with people brought by one curse or another, those who had fallen through portals, and those who had decided that life would be more interesting in a new and undiscovered place. There was one catch though, to this power. Everyone who came to this land, the regions, especially in the north, were cursed to spend the rest of time there, never leaving, never dying.

It was in the northern most area of this land were a set of twins, one male and one female, stumbled upon a curious silver bottle that would change their lives forever.

Brendan enjoyed the tiny fact that he was the elder sibling of his twin relationship – receiving that honor by being born a mere seven minutes before his sister. He wielded and lorded that power over his beautiful 'baby' sister at every turn. It didn't matter that they were the fourth and fifth children born to a king in a now far away land. Brendan was older than Sadie, and that was that. He smiled widely and gallantly held the door to the tiny shop open for his sister. "After you, my darling baby sister."

He sketched a bow and grinned even wider at her glare. "Seven minutes, Bren. Seven. And we are quite literally in the middle of nowhere with no chances of returning home. No one leaves the Forest of the Damned, and that's just a really shitty fact."

"Like we would be welcomed back. Brother and his pretty wife Elle made sure of that."

"Rubbing salt in our own wounds," Sadie muttered with mirth, taking a good look around their surroundings. Brendan had decided on this little shop, declaring if they were going to spend and barter what little they had, they would at least do it in style. She could admit, she sighed, that the little shop was unique, though currently unoccupied by other living beings. Trinkets and gadgets from more worlds and times and kingdoms than she could imagine filled the walls and shelves.

She ran her fingers, more of a caress is she was being honest, across the shiny surface of a … Digging through her mind, she pulled out the word. Toaster. The gadget was from a world where magic came in the form of a mysterious thing called electricity. How people gathered energy and magic from lighting storms was beyond her – though she had been told once by an old man of a group of strange people who flew through storms catching bolts of lightning in the clouds. _That would be fun_, she mused. Turning her mind back to the toaster, she couldn't understand why someone would need a shiny thing like this to brown bread when a fire would do just fine.

Turning away from the metal box, she scanned the room, her eyes falling on the bottle at the same time as her twin. "I-"

"Saw it first? No. I did. And I am older."

The siblings lurched across the room, each coming from a different corner, and reached for the silver bottle. Their hands made contact at the same time, Sadie grabbing while Brenden merely made a brushing contact.

"Ha!" Sadie cried in glee. "Mine!"

Rolling his eyes and knowing when he had been beat, Brendan lifted his hands in a 'fine, you win' gesture and stepped a little closer to his twin and her bottle. "An interesting design," he noted, taking in the slightly tarnished silver of the bottle and the intricate details that seemed to be etched into the metal.

"It is from the far regions of the Sandy Mountains."

The voice, soft and slightly tinkling, made both Sadie and Brendan jump. They spun around and faced the voice, each reacting differently to the young woman who stood, almost hidden in the shadows. Sadie's attention was drawn to the demeanor of the woman. Shy but powerful. She knew who she was, but didn't like it. The woman wore tan pants and tall boots, nothing too unique there – no matter what land and world one was in. She also wore a gauzy green shirt that was covered by a leather jacket – very non-magical like clothing. A pair of golden bracelets glinted beneath the cuffs of the jacket, a very strange fashion statement in Sadie's mind.

Brendan, on the other hand, hadn't moved his eyes past the face of the woman. Her hair (he had always had a fascination about hair) was dark brown, almost black. It fell down her back in straight tresses, curling slightly at the ends. He wondered what it would feel like. Rough? Smooth? He didn't know. He wanted to know. Her eyes were green, emerald green he decided, falling deeply into them. Her lips, face, features, were all soft and strong at the same time. He could almost swear that her features shifted and changed the longer he looked at her, but he wasn't quite sure.

"Who are you?" Sadie whispered, breaking the trance of her brother. "Are you the owner?"

Cocking her head to the side, the woman looked at Sadie and said, "I am known by many names, but I am not the owner of this little shop. He disappeared. I believe into a brown field mouse. That was almost a month ago… by you definition of time, not mine. It seemed like just a few moments ago, if you know what I mean. People have been coming in and out of the shop though. They trade and swap things but never steal. Quite curious." As she said the last two words, she hastily covered her mouth as if she had said something hideous and wrong. "Sorry," she whispered.

"Where did you come from?" Sadie prompted, her eyes wide in shock as she grew more and concerned about her and Brendan's safety when it came to the woman who seemed to have been witness to the demise of the shop keeper.

"Lots of places," shrugged the woman. "Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters!" exclaimed Brendan, throwing his arms in the air. "You appear out of nowhere, claim to have come from lots of places and have lots of names, but please, be a dear and tell us what the bloody hell you are doing here now."

The woman seemed to snap to attention, her eyes glazing over as she recited the age old words as she had done for the past however many lifetimes. "Master mine. My will is thine. What are your wishes three?"

"A genie," breathed Brendan.

"My genie," snapped Sadie, realizing what exactly she was holding. "I have the bottle. My bottle, my genie."

"These are yours," the genie replied to Brendan, dropping three green gems into his hand and effectively ignoring Sadie at the same time. "Your wishes."

"You're a genie."

"My genie." The genie flicked her hand, sufficiently silencing Sadie.

Sadie tried to speak, her mouth opening and closing, but no sounds coming out. "You may hold my bottle, darling, but you did not summon me. 'Master' not 'Mistress'." Sadie's mouth opened and closed again before she gave up, stomped her foot, and shoved the bottle into the genie's hands.

"This is yours also," the genie muttered quickly, shoving the bottle into Brendan's hands as well. "You should keep this with you. In a safe place. Or whatever."

"What is this?"

The genie cocked her head and peered at Brendan as if he was a none-too-bright little boy. "My bottle. My home." All she got was a puzzled look. "When you make your three wishes, I go back into the bottle. When you don't need me, I go back into the bottle. When I am not granting wishes, I go back into the bottle."

"You live in a bottle? You have spent your life in this bottle?" He held up the bottle and shook it in her face. Her reply was a quick nod of her head, causing her hair to flutter and shake.

Brendan gently placed the bottle on a counter and took a step closer to the genie, peering at her as if she was some unique and overtly interesting object to be studied. "So let me get this straight. You are a genie."

He seemed to be waiting for an answer. "Yes."

"You spend your time in a bottle."

"Yes."

"You grant three wishes to the master of this bottle."

"Yes. As long as they don't break the rules of magic."

"You can't bring back the dead. You can't change the past. You can't make someone fall in love."

"Correct."

"How long have you been in that bottle?"

Thinking, the genie walked past Brendan, gliding really, and gently caressed the bottle. "The last time I was out was a while ago. I sent my last master here." At Sadie's startled squawk, it seemed that she could make some sounds if she really tried, the genie said, "I am not really sure where here is though. I've been on that shelf for a very long time."

The genie snapped her fingers and Sadie blurted out, "We're in the Forest of the Damned. Aleandra. Why would someone want to come here?"

"She wanted to go somewhere new and exciting. She didn't specify."

"You brought her here?"

"I don't have complete power over wishes. Strange things can happen. Bad things can happen. People get hurt and wishes get twisted. One must be extremely careful when making their three wishes… or you could end up in the Forest of the Damned… with no way out."

"You can't wish us out of here?" Brendan's face fell a bit as his sister voiced his own thoughts.

"I don't think so." The genie gave the twins a sad smile. "But there is always a way out of these places, right?"

Sadie shrugged. "We've tried, but we're in the northern most part of the forest. We can't get out of the woods let alone Aleandra all together."

"And where did you come from?"

Sadie began to speak but closed her mouth when she saw Brendan shaking his head. "We should head out of here. Leave a bobble," he ordered Sadie, as he grabbed up the bottle and ushered the genie towards the door. "We should go aground before someone comes by. I dearly love my life…"

"Home?" questioned Sadie, not sure what her twin would say. He shook his head and charged out of the shop like a man on a mission, leaving Sadie and the genie to follow or be left behind.

Brendan led his sister and the genie through the trees at a breakneck pace, confusing both of the females. The bottle had been shoved into a satchel that was crossed over Brendan's back and a bow and quiver had appeared for Sadie to carry. Brendan had somehow procured a sword, and the genie, possessing her more than adequate magical powers, had conjured up a blade that was currently hidden on the inside of her left calf. She didn't trust Sadie, and was stuck with Brendan for the next three wishes.

"How much further, brother?"

"Just through the trees," he grunted.

The genie just raised her brow, not wanting to mention that the only thing around them were trees. Trees, trees, and more trees. She sighed and ran her hand against the bark of one. A sudden stinging sensation rushed through her system, causing her to hiss in a breath of air. Turning her hand over, she watched as her skin peeled off and then regenerated itself.

She didn't have healing powers.

Her hand had replaced the injured, infected, sickly skin with fresh, new, perfect skin.

The genie stopped in her tracks, breath coming out in panicked puffs.

"Genie! Come on." She knew that Brendan was impatient, his tone told her that much, but the sight of her healing hands was a bit too much to handle after all those years in the bottle.

Still staring at her skin, all traces long gone, the genie jumped as Sadie placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Genie?"

"I have a name," she whispered, so softly that she wasn't sure if anyone would hear.

"What is it?"

The genie held up her hand and then pointed to the tree.

"Don't touch the trees. It burns." Sadie placed a reassuring arm around the genie's shoulders and began to walk forward.

"I'm healed. I have magic, but not that kind of magic."

Brendan, standing near but not touching the tree on the ridge, glared at the two women. "Are you coming or not? And god, genie. You are slower than Elle riding in a pumpkin."

"I touched the tree… I healed… I don't have that power… Aria does, but I don't." She was dazed. Everything was happening too fast. One minute she was in her bottle, the next she was granting the third wish. Suddenly she was in a strange world with essentially two masters. She couldn't take it all in. She was trying to breath, but her breath was coming out in little puffs and she was hyperventilating, but she couldn't stop it or slow down her breathing or anything and she was worried, so worried that Brendan and Sadie would make their wishes and she would be placed back in her bottle and she would never get out and never go home and never make right the wrongs that had happened and. . .

Her world went black.


	3. A Princess and a Bastard

**Chapter Two: A Princess and a Bastard**  
><strong>The Green Isles; Long Ago<strong>

Perhaps if the Queen would have lived, there would have been another child, a companion for the future queen of the Green Isles, but that had not happened and events that would change the course of history had already taken place. Because the queen had died, the king sent for his bastard, a beautiful girl of three, to be the companion of Princess Leya, the next Queen of the Green Isles. Many of the king's advisors warned against bringing in the girl but the king always answered, "The child is my blood, so she shall be raised in my home."

On the Crown Princess's tenth birthday, the order of the castle changed. Leya was old enough to attend court function, and naturally, her companion believed that she too would be part of the new adventures. That was not the case.

"Darling daughter," beamed the king, leaning down to kiss Leya on her forehead. "Aria," he nodded towards the older girl. "The ball tonight will be filled with entertainments beyond your wildest imaginings."

"What will be there daddy?" asked Leya, leaning against her father's chair and looking onto his desk as he worked.

Aria positioned herself on the king's other side and asked, "Yes, father. What will be there?"

The king paused for a moment and then turned his full attention to Aria. "How old are you now?"

"Thirteen, father."

"Old enough to start serving, I believe."

"Father?"

He ignored her plea and spoke over her. "I am not your father. You are a bastard child, Aria and it is past time you remembered that. The only reason you are in the castle is to serve Leya. Is that clear? You will help her get dressed, assist her with her schooling, and stay out of sight. The best servants are those who are neither heard nor seen." He looked her directly in the eyes. "Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," Aria spat out, stepping away from the king.

"Good," he smiled. "Now, the two of you should begin to prepare Leya for the ball tonight. I want her looking as perfect as she is." He cupped his daughter's cheeks and kissed her again on the forehead, sending the two girls away.

Once out of the king's hearing, Leya turned to Aria, attempting to grab her sister, her companion's hand. "Aria," she pleaded.

Aria brushed Leya's hand away. "I was thinking the new green silk gown that we had originally planned for the Midwinter celebration. You look wonderful in green, and since the crown jewels are emeralds, I think it would be fitting for your color scheme to be green." She paused for a moment as if to say something, anything remotely like the old Aria, but instead nodded. "Yes. Green it should be."

Though Aria was correct in her thinking that green would be a most fitting color for the next Queen of the Green Isles, there was one small problem. Leya hated the color green. There were never enough options and at times it made her look sickly and pale, a fact that Aria knew and often pointed out.

* * *

><p>"Why do you hate me so?" asked Leya in her soft voice on the eve of her sixteenth birthday.<p>

"Hate?" replied Aria. "I don't hate you, my princess. We are just of different statuses. Do you want your drop emeralds or the studs?"

"Drop," murmured Leya. "Remember when we snuck out all those years ago and took horses from the stables to go riding? That is one of my fondest memories."

Aria sniffed disapprovingly. "If I remember correctly, princess, you broke your arm."

"Details, Aria. And please don't call me princess. You know how I hate that title. I just want to be a normal girl."

The brush Aria had been holding clattered to the ground.

"Aria?"

She bent to pick up the dropped tool and said, "You don't wish to be princess?"

"Not particularly. Would you?"

"Silly princess. All I have ever wanted was to wear a crown on my head and to rule over a land."

Leya perked up at this. "Then perhaps I can talk to father and see if we can marry you to a prince. I bet there are loads of men looking for a beautiful wife like you."

"Is that all you think about? Being pretty?"

"It's what people notice. Men especially," whispered Leya in horror, realizing that she must have said something wrong.

Aria stormed around the dressing room, straitening items as she went and then asked, "Will you take a husband?"

The answer was instantaneous. "Of course."

"Describe him."

Leya pondered for a moment. "He will be charming. That is a must. His manners will be impeccable and his smile. Oh goodness. It will make me swoon. His hair will be wavy and blond, well perhaps brown, but I know I don't want someone with black hair. Our children must have a chance at being little blondes. I have always wanted a blonde haired little girl. He will be tall, of course. And must have a strong working knowledge of horses. I dearly love to ride."

"Everything you just noted is superficial. Nothing is about how he thinks or acts."

"I said charming," challenged Leya.

"Your idea of the perfect man is someone who looks nice. What about his character? Do you not care if he will be kind and know how to lead a group of men? Does this not matter to you?"

"Father will choose adequate candidates for me to decide from, so I am not worried." Leya shrugged and reached for the emerald studded tiara that was nestled in its pillow. She slowly lowered it to her head and secured the study piece of jewelry. "I am done with you, Aria," snapped Leya. "You can leave now and see if Cook has anything for you to do. Father said that our guest will be arriving any moment now."

Aria executed a perfect curtsy and murmured a polite, "Yes, ma'am," before leaving Leya to herself.

When the door clicked shut, Leya let out a small, frustrated yelp. She wasn't a spineless princess. No, she assured herself. She could pick out her own husband and the choice would be perfect. Yes. That would be what she did. She would go down to her father and demand that he bring forward a diverse grouping of gentlemen to consider as her future husband and the future king. She smiled at her plan and stood up, brushing her skirts as she did so. She was the Crown Princess. She would be the next Queen of the Green Isles, and she would be the best queen ever to rule the lands.


	4. What to Do Next

**Chapter Three: What to Do Next**  
><strong>Aleandra; Present Day<strong>

The genie slowly blinked her eyes open, shadows forming around her and slowly taking shape. "You can't just do that."

Those were the words she woke up to, a harsh way to enter back into the land of the living. With a groggy mumble of words, she forced her eyes to focus and found Brendan's blue eyes staring at her. Sadie was hovering just above his shoulder, a worried look on both of their faces.

"Take it easy, Bren," mumbled Sadie, pushing her twin aside and kneeling next to the genie. "Can't you see that she has had a hard enough time as it is?"

"And we need to get a name for her, because I am tired of calling her 'the genie'. So unoriginal."

"Leya," the genie muttered. "My name is Leya, or it was before I was cursed into a genie."

"Cursed?" questioned Sadie, gently helping Leya the genie into a sitting position. "You'll have to tell us about that sometime."

"Long story," murmured Leya, leaning into Sadie's arm and resting her head on her new friend's shoulder... or was she her master? Her head hurting too much to think, Leya pushed that thought aside and attempted to focus on her immediate surroundings. "Where are we?"

"A little cave system. Near the southern edge of the forest. Aleandra's finest dwellings for its resident genie," snarled Brendan.

Sadie shushed her twin and slowly explained the situation to Leya, who would have preferred unconsciousness or even her bottle to the world the greeted her now. It was long past nightfall and she was chilled to the bone. The twins hadn't lit a fire, most likely to make sure predators didn't know they were there. "We can rest here for a while. We'll need to figure out a plan, but, hey, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so no rush."

Brendan snarled out something crude and unintelligible, a dialect that Leya couldn't quite place. She tried to shake the cobwebs from her mind, but didn't quite succeed. "I am sure I will be fine in the morning. I am always a bit out of sorts when I first come out of the bottle." That was a lie, but Leya didn't care. There wasn't any rules against lying in the 'genie handbook', so she wasn't worried about dying a painful death or something such as that.

Another part of the conversation struck Leya's mind. She reached out and placed a slight hand on Brendan's arm. "Master. Did you say we were at the southern edge of Aleandra's forest?"

The term 'master' was a stick in Brendan's craw, but he wasn't in the mood to dwell with that at the moment. "Yes," he said with slight irritation. "Why?"

"Do you have any wishes in mind, sir?"

"It's Brendan, and no. I don't have any wishes planned out. All I want is to get out of this damned forest and back home."

Home. All three of the people in the cave gave a wistful thought of the homes they would most likely never see again and let the sadness descend on them.

Sadie snapped out of her dream of beautiful oceans and wonderful palaces, saying, "Why do you ask, Leya?"

Leya replied with a question. "You want to go back home?"

"More than anything," agreed Sadie. She leaned in conspicuously and whispered, "We're from the Seven Seas."

"A beautiful place," murmured Leya, thinking back.

"Have you been there?" gushed Sadie. "When?"

A sad smile crossed Leya's face. "A long time ago…" She shook her head, as if removing bad thoughts and images and then forced a happier expression on her face. "Tell me how it is these days… or at least how you left it."

"Well," thought Sadie, pleased to be the deliverer of a story. "The Kingdom of the Seven Seas is still a gorgeous place. We are still into shipping and the royal palace!" Her cheeks flushed as she thought of her home palace. "The spires were re-gilded when Brendan and I were born and when our eldest brother took the throne when we were fifteen, he ordered sapphires to be placed into the roofs! They sparkled and shone so wonderfully!"

Her face fell at that point. "Well that beauty wasn't quite enough for his new wife. On our twentieth birthday, or there about, she found a sorceress to banish us. That was a little over five years now… not that we've been able to keep track of time much here. We tend to get shuffled about every once in a while and lose all sorts of time and direction."

"A sorceress?" questioned Leya. "Who?"

Brendan took over the story. "She's old and powerful, but looks as young as all of us. She calls herself the Blood Queen, and quite apt in my opinion. Kills off everyone who gets in her way and sends off the rest in a fit of curses."

Leya paled. "I see. The Blood Queen."

"Do you know of her?" the twins asked together.

"She was rising in power when I was growing up. I would guess we're about the same age, but genies don't age in their bottles, and we're not out long enough to cause much of a difference anyways."

Sadie looked on sadly. Brendan decided it was high time to change the topic. "You were wondering where we were at before?"

"Oh yes." Leya clamped on to the distraction and smiled at the twins. "Aleandra is nearly impossible to get out of, if you're heading to other parts of the Forest of the Damned, and it is impossible to get out of." She paused to think for a moment. "From tales I have read, growing up and before I was sent here, it is said to be nearly impossible to escape the forest. Nearly being the key word. There are stories of people escaping from the southernmost tip. It's a dangerous place, but I think it can be done."

"How do we get to the south?" queried Brendan.

"Every time we get close to the boarder, we are flung back north. This is the closest safe place with shelter that we've been able to find… if I remember correctly. My thoughts get jumbled when we fly back north."

"Your first wish," Leya said, her eyes connecting with Brendan's. "I think if you wish to find the door to walk out Aleandra and to the forests to the south, the wish should work."

"Isn't that too big?"

Leya pondered that possibility. "If you use the words walk, and make sure you say where you are going to, we should be fine. It's a big wish, but it is very specific."

"But we'll want to be close to the boarder, yes?"

The genie nodded. "I can get you close."

"How?" questioned Sadie, doubting.

"I have a bit of my own magic," Leya confessed. "I haven't used it much, but I am confident enough that I can find the edge of the magic that keeps people in Aleandra. Once we're out, we can work on getting out." She flung her hand over her mouth and blushed deeply. "I'm sorry. Shouldn't have said that."

"Why ever not?" demanded Brendan.

Sadie realized the truth before Leya could speak. "Because she is a genie who must serve her master. She doesn't have the ability, the option to think for herself and plan a future. Even if she got out, she would still be a slave to her bottle."

Leya nodded sadly.

"Can you be freed from your bottle?"

A small shrug. "A bottle must always have a genie, unless the creator of curse that placed the person into the bottle removes the curse. And that will never happen." Another shrug bobbed Leya's shoulders up and down. "I fear if my master releases me, another soul will enter into the bottle, and I wouldn't wish this upon anyone."

That statement brought another cloud of depression over the cave. Brendan refused to make eye contact with Leya, Sadie seemed on the verge of tears, and Leya could hardly keep her eyes open, the need for sleep almost completely taking over her body.

"We should get some sleep. We'll make our first wish in the morning." His word was law and they each crawled into their own corners to sleep away their sadness.

* * *

><p>Bright morning light filtered through the cave as Leya watched Brendan and Sadie sleep. The twins were almost peaceful, stirring only to reach out and touch the other's hand or arm in reassurance. She envied them. That thought shocked Leya more than she imagined. She had never envied any of her previous masters, seeing them as a job and nothing more. The last person she had envied had been Aria, and look where that had gotten her.<p>

Leya pushed that train of thought away, and decided to make use of the early morning. She figured breakfast would be a step in the right direction when it came to the twins and their kindness. She had never had such nice masters, and she wanted to make the most of it. Food was the first thing on the list.

She had been gone for a little over a quarter of an hour when she felt her magic pull at her. She never did like that portion of the genie's magic, but she wasn't one to complain. Making sure she had a firm grasp on the food she had managed to gather, she allowed the magic to wash over her and bring her back to the cave and Brendan.

His face was a wash of emotions, most of them unfamiliar to Leya when it came to men looking at her. "You left." It was a statement, not a question.

"And you called me back, but I think I was able to keep hold of most of the food I gathered. Whatever I lost was mine anyway." Leya kept a smile in her voice as she split the food in half, one portion to each of the twins. "We have some berries and mushrooms. Not the tastiest, but they aren't too bad raw."

"You were gathering food for breakfast?" This time it was Sadie who spoke and it was in a shocked question.

"Yes. Need to keep up strength. The magic of the changing of forests will get to you."

"Where is your food?" Brendan poked at the berries and mushrooms in front of him and then popped one of each in his mouth.

Leya debated. She settled on saying, "I was eating a bit while gathering."

Suspicious eyes watched Leya closely as another berry entered into Brendan's mouth. He didn't argue, though he figured the genie was lying. She didn't seem like the kind of person who would think of herself before those she figured she served. He didn't like it, but what could he do? Nothing was the answer.

He shrugged off the feeling of uncertainty and worry and finished the little meal in front of him. Sadie did the same.

"Ready?" he asked, looking at his sister instead of the other woman.

Sadie grinned. "I am so ready to get out of here." She laughed and looped her arm through Leya's. "Lead the way, Leya!"

A quick nod was all they received.

The trio began their way south, moving slowly as to make sure they didn't pass through the boarder and end back in the north. Leya kept one hand extended, feeling the pulse of magic, drawing her hand back slightly when she felt it tickle her skin.

It was nearly midday by the time Leya stopped, deeming the section of boarder suitable for their endeavor. "Here."

"We've been walking east for a while now," Brendan noted.

"I wanted a weaker area of the boarder. This will do for our purposes. Make your wish."

"Are you sure?" spoke Sadie.

"It's the only way out of Aleandra," muttered Brendan. He took a deep breath, pulled out one of the tiny green wishes that he had placed in his pocket, and said in a clear voice, "I wish for the door that leads from Aleandra to the southern woods to appear."

Leya felt the magic rush in a not so pleasant wave over her, and then felt nothing. Brendan had grabbed hold of Sadie as the ground had dropped away beneath the three of them, which was a good thing in Leya's mind. At least they were all falling together, but it was the falling part that made her worry. Water was below them, not the forest of the south, and that had not been in the cards.


End file.
